The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1887-12-02
A WICKED ELEPHANT,
OF RAILWAY TRAVEL
WITH A VICIOUS BRUTE.

PLEASURES OF RAILWAY TRAVEL
WITH A VICIOUS BRUTE.
Locked in II Close Car at Night With an
elephant In One Corner and Il Drunken
Keeper in hnothcr-Livcly Times-put
Not Your Trust in Elephants.
During the time / was with Fore
paugh's circus,'' says James Twitchell
buffalo Bill's late manager of the London
Wild West Show" ~ took part in some
exhibitions that were not down on the
Dllls One in particular l shall not be
nKely to forget The show disbanded at
Chlcago; Bamboo, the trick elephant, was
leased to the kiralfy brothers, who were
ABOUT TO open their season in Boston,
bamboo had established a name for him
sell as savage. treacherons brute who
had Killed and manned at least dozen
men. He had a keeper who was in
thc habit of becoming and remaining
drunk. l hadn't much idea of the
dangerous character of the journey until
we Were perhaps a hundred miles out of
Cnicago The bottom of the car was
thlckly Uttered with hay, in which Bam-
BOO, the keeper and myself were to sleep
together. The keepers bottle was one Of
my earliest discoveries and discourage
ments. The novelty of the situation kept
me awake pretty much all the first night
out, and it was with some dismay that I
discovered that the keeper was hopelessly
drunk, snoring in the hay. That would
not have minded had Bamboo only kept
Int !, al r1,,sf Il
that first night, before had become in
the least accustomed to the situation, was
simply a night of horrors. In the still
hours of that night, with the train rush
ing along ut the rate of thirty miles an
hour would at short intervals hear
mnfiled snort from the monster at the
other end of the car, and then feel gil
gantlc foot showing against me, or the end
OF ms trunk passing inquisitively over my
face. Then would jump up and yell to
phasizc my remarks
Here, you-wake up! That Internal
elephant is going TO trample us to deathp
The drunken keeper would get to his
feet, swear give Bamboo an unmerciful
proddins with his fork, the great brute
would lie down and cry, and we would
have peace.
This scene, with variations, is what
happened all the way from Chicago to
New York. ] wasn't tramplcd to death
by the elephant: why was not I do not
know.
"About daylight we were in the vicinity
of Eric, Pa. Here Bamboo took cOgni-
zance Of his surroundings in disagree
able way Elephant cars, be it under
tran. .,r;gtion OF these brutes, and the
car l.! which we first embarked was not
of thu, kind. 1t was not high enough nor
stroiia enough. When the vicious brute
hal t!9roaghly satisfied himself of these
his u.ly back and burst the whole top of
the CIR ont.
we stopped at Erie. There was loud
for compensation for the damage. I told
them to send their bill to the Kiralfys,
and, in the meantime if they didn't want
the elephant on their hands to take care
OF. they had better help me get him to
Boston as fast as possible. They took a
look at Bamboo, observed his vicious eve,
and said they guessed that was so.
I'VE arrived at Buffalo. A necessity
point The elephant had been well fed
and well watered, and might have had
the deccncy to behave himself. The
keeper got him out of the wrecked car in
good shape and started him for his new
quarters in the waiting train. A. great
pile of blackberry crates was near. but not
at all in the way. May 7 be blamed if
that devilish brute didn't make for them
and destroy twenty-four full crates before
the keeper could restrain him.
"Well, everybody knows the law about
elephants and other wild beasts. 1 had
to settle for the blacllberries on the spot,
and a large hole it made in my $50.
The most dangerous and laborous in
cident of our trip would not have hap
pened but for the fact that when the
keeper was sober he would smoke a pipe.
His smoking set the hay afire near SYRIA
cl,se, and before it was discovered the car
was filled with smoke the elephant was
snorting and trumpeting, and we couldn't
stamp out the fire.
1--WE had two buckets. l rushed with
them through The baggage car, over the
tender. got the fireman in the cab to fill
them, and ran back with them to our car.
This feat, half dozen times repeated,
with the train going at express speed, was
no small task. The keeper took the pals
at the door of our car and doused the
burning hay with the water. Simple
business, You would say, to put out such
a fire that way. So it would have been
but for that elephant. He came near
getting us and himself burned up to-
getl.er; for about every second he would
swing his trunk around, overset the pals
and spill the water anywhere but on the
fire l have heard something of the in-
telligencc of the elephant; this fellow was
in u panic until we got that fire out.
''One Sunday morning we unloaded at
the Grand Central station in New York,
and getting into Broadway, marched tri-
umplluntly down. OF my $50 [ had left
$3.50 Bamboo had eaten up and de-
stroyed more than so worth The keeper
was gloriously drunk; but we had passed
the larger part of the journey, we had but
one stage more, and had high hopes of
getting into Boston Tuesday morning, at
the furthest.
with much trouble we got the brute
auartered in barn on Crosby street. We
slept with him, and ute cold junk for
twenty-four hours. When we marched
aboard the sound steamer with Bamboo
the next day my $3.50 was gone, and the
keeper and had left our coats as security
for the elephants board. Yet I presume
the crowd on the steamer thought it the
correct thing for gentlemen in care of an
elephant to appear in their shirt sleeves
So our dignity was maintained.
s"The name of Kiralfy, aided, believe,
by telegram from the management to
the captain of the boat, secured our trans
portation, and 1 fondly fancied that my
woes were over. But let no man put his
trust in an elephant! Bamboo was reserv-
-. =. ..,.-4o ar. ctrol.a for the finish In